Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-06-22
THE CAPTURED FLAGS INCIDENT.

- JAW
orderof Adjutant-G General Drum returning
to the Southern States the flags in Wash
ington captured by the Union soldiers in
battle, he evidently thought the war was
over, and that the act was e~minently be-
fitting and proper in this era of good feel
ing, when the soldiers of both sides, who
confronted each other in the heat of dead
ly conflict, could now afford to meet on a
common ground ofamity and fraternize in
the celebration of achievements equally
rejecting lustre on the arms of both. But
it seems that the time has not yet arrived
for the fulfllment of the hope of a restored
peace and confidence between the sections,
for no sooner was the Presidents order
promulgated than a howl of Indignation
went up from certain sections of the North
protesting against the Presidents action.
Gen. Tuttle, the Commander of the Grand
Army of the Republic of Iowa, asked the
Governor of his State to protest against
the return of the flags. The Governor for
warded the protest and said he would, if
possible, take legal steps to prevent their
return.
Commander Fairchild, Commander-in-
Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic,
in a speech before Hamilton Post'in New
York, waxed wroth and among other ele-
CANT things said: "May God palsy the hand
that wrote the order; may God palsy the
brain that conceived it, and may God palsy
the tongue that directed it." He asked:
"How can the present loyal Governors of
the Southern States accept emblems of
treason after their professions of loyalty
to the Union? Must they not return them
to the Secretary of War and say that they
have nothing to do with the flags, as the
rebel organizations are eXtinct?"
Other army posts, and especially politi-
clans of the bloody shirt school, also pro-
tested, and in the face of the opposition,
on Thursday, the President countermand-
ed the order in the following letter to the
Secretary of War:
II have to-day considered with more
care than when the subject was orally pre-
sented me, the action of the department
directing letters to be addressed to the
Governors of all States Offering to return,
if desired, to the loyal States, Union flags
captured during the war of the rebellion by
the Confederate forces and afterward re-
covered by the government troops, and the
Confederate States flags, captured by
Union forces, all OF which for many years
have been packed in boxes and stored IN
the cellar and attic of the War depart
ment. l am ofthe opinion thatthe return
ofthe flags in the manner thus contemplate
ed, is not authorized by the existing laws,
nor justified as an EXecutiveact. request,
therefore, that no further steps be taken
in the matter except to examine and in
vsntory these flags, and adopt proper
measures for their preservation. Any di-
rection as to the final disposition of them
should originate with Congress-"
Thus the trouble is ended, the cause of
all fears of the SUPERFICIAL is removed,
and those who were alarmed for the cause
of the Union may breathe easy in the con-
seriousness of their inner souls that by
their grand efforts the country has again
been saved.
It would have been better, we believe,
had the order not been issued but its pro-
mitigation has clearly demonstrated one
fact of which we have for, some time been
convinced, and that is that the Republican
leaders propose to make the bloody shirt
the issue of the next Presidential CAM
paign. Will the rank and file of those
who fought in the Union army give the
scheme their moral support at this remote
day, twenty-five years after Lees men
laid down their arms in favor of a restored
Union?
The FESTIVE HANGMAN.-John w.